Nadav Ovadia

Nadav Ovadia

Born in 1993, Nadav Ovadia is one of the very few musicians currently researching and performing on historical European dulcimers (pantaleon, psalterion, tympanon, salterio, dulce-melos), reconstructing and reviving their forgotten voices from the Baroque, Renaissance and Middle Ages, as he studied from Margit Übellacker (Frankfurt).
As a Chateaubriand grant program fellow, Nadav completed his master’s degree in the Musique Ancienne department of CNSMD de Lyon, France, studying with Yves Rechsteiner and Pierre Hamon.
He is currently working on his doctorate in CNSMD de Lyon, Université Lyon 2 and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. This PhD project is supported by the Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Studienwerk, the Fondation France-Israël and the Fondation Rothschild – Institut Alain de Rothschild.
In the spring of 2024, Nadav was in residency at the Alfred Toepfer Stiftung Elbehaus to give solo concerts and to carry out archival research in Hamburg and the region.

Nadav has performed on the dulcimer in concerts in Europe, the Far East and Israel and was invited to add the unique colors of the dulcimer to CD recordings and opera productions of early music.
Nadav is also a percussionist and was a founding member of Tremolo Ensemble, a marimba and percussion quintet. As a member of the ensemble, Nadav performed as a soloist with major chamber orchestras in Israel and Ukraine, in recitals and concerts in Israel, USA, Central America and Europe, in recordings and films soundtracks, theatre productions and collaborations with leading musical acts in Israel and abroad.
The ensemble had won the Ödön Pártos Prize for excellent performance of an Israeli composition, on behalf of the Israeli Ministry of Culture for 2017.

Nadav completed his training as a marimba and percussion performer by studying with Tomer Yariv, as a graduate of the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music of Tel-Aviv University in the percussion class of Alon Bor and as a graduate of the Thelma-Yellin High School of the Arts.
Since 2008, Nadav received scholarships from the AICF as a percussionist, and also a scholarship of excellence in the field of early music interpretation and dulcimer playing. (Photo credit – Anat Nazarathy)